The final sentence, read aloud by an officer from the bridge, excited the crew of the _Colodia_ to the utmost. The American seamen were spurred to fighting pitch now. Their only desire was to get at the raider and her crew. “It’s a running fight between her and the _Susanne_,” Morgan said to Al Torrance. “Otherwise the German shells might have reached the sugar ship’s engines before this.” “Think of them shelling that merchant ship that has women passengers aboard!” groaned Al. “What can those Germans be thinking of? What will happen to them after this war is over?” “They all believe they are going to win,” Belding said gloomily. “That is what is the matter. And if they _should_, the whole world will be treated just as ruthlessly as the Germans please.” “Don’t talk that way! Don’t talk that way!” shouted Al. “I won’t listen to such a possibility! They can’t win this war, and that’s all there is to it!” “Quiet, there,” admonished the voice of an officer, and the boys subsided to whispered comments, one to the other. Again and again the wireless chattered the cry for help. The guns thundered ahead. Suddenly there arose a rosy light in the sky, spreading through the fog in a wide wave of color. “She’s blown up!” was the general and hopeless ejaculation from the crew of the destroyer. “Her engines went that time, sure enough--and her boilers, too,” groaned Ensign MacMasters, who chanced to stand near the gun crew to which Whistler and Al belonged and where Belding was stationed in reserve. “She’s helpless now. If we don’t get there soon----” There were no more radio messages. The calls to the _Susanne_ were not answered. The melting fog soon gave the lookouts a clearer view ahead. “Steamship tops and rigging in sight, sir!” was the cry to the bridge. Then, a minute later: “She’s on fire, sir, and sinking by the stern.” “Ah!” muttered Ensign MacMasters. “We are too late again!” CHAPTER XXI--THE MYSTERY MESSAGE In a very few minutes the crew of the _Colodia_--all those above deck, at least--gained a view of the burning ship. She was completely wrecked at the stern, and it was probably true, as Ensign MacMasters had said, that her engines and boilers had been blown up. She lay helpless and sinking. All her passengers and her crew had been driven forward by the flames. The bow of the steamship was slanting up into the air at a threatening angle. The men were lowering such boats as there remained from the forward davits. The _Susanne’s_ bulk, the smoke, and the last shreds of the fog hid the enemy from the view of the destroyer’s crew. But suddenly they saw a high-powered motor-boat appear beside the crippled steamship. Armed men filled it. Two stood up as the boat swung in to the steamship’s side and caught the hanging davit ropes. They hooked these ropes to the launch, fore and aft.